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Welcome
to my humble little section of the Redrock
Outdoors web site. I'm excited to be part of this
project, and I'm looking forward to sharing my summer with you
all. I'm hoping to share some of the things I learn as I
go along, and I'm also desperately hoping I won't do anything
too stupid that I have to tell you all about. I suppose
I should tell you just a bit about myself to start off
with.
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I'm in my early 40's, I have two of the sweetest
little girls in the world and recently I found myself going
through a divorce. The divorce, while painful and
traumatic, has turned out to be a real turning point in my
life.
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I found out that the person I'd been married to for 12 years
wasn't really the person I though she was, I found myself also
beginning to re-evaluate just about every other aspect of my
life. I figured out that I'd been putting some of my
long term plans and dreams on hold as I tried to make those
around me happy. So, mid-life hits, suddenly I'm single,
lot's of time on my hands to either sit around feeling sorry
for myself, or to go start getting my own dreams back on
track. So here I am, setting out at this point in my
life to learn to sail. Ultimately, I want to own a boat
large enough to live aboard, and I intend to see some of the
far corners of the earth. But for today, I'm starting
small. Like the rest of the gang here at Redrock
Outdoors, I live in Utah. Not exactly a Mecca for
sailing, but those of you lucky enough to live and work near
the oceans might be surprised to find out that the Great
Salt Lake has a pretty well established Yacht Club and general
sailing community. In fact the Great
Salt Lake Yacht Club has been in operation under the same
charter for over 125 years!
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work about a 10 minute drive away from the state Marina, and
sometime last summer I started driving over there ever so
often at lunch to wander the docks, lusting after the
boats. When I first started thinking I might just break
down and buy a boat, I first noticed a Catalina 22 that seemed
to have been lovingly restored to near new condition.
All winter long I couldn't get rid of the desire to own a
sailboat. Finally, when the first few warms days moved
into the region, I decided the time was right to make my
move. Silly me, I waited about a day too long and the
Catalina got sold out from under me. Well, now that I
had made my mind up, there was nothing else to do but find
something else. Luckily, I spotted the a 1970 Santana 22
that was also for sale. I called the owner the day I
found it, and bought it the next day. Since then, I've
been out there almost every day, fixing up a fairly short list
of repair list items and heading out every chance I can in
search of some wind. |
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- About the
Boat - |
I have to admit, I
didn't really know anything about this particular boat before
I bought it, but since, I've found quite a bit of information,
and a substantial community of people who share a fondness for
these particular boats. The W.D.
Schock company built 747 of these boats in the 10 years
from 1969 to 1979. The boat has been improved a little,
and re-introduced as a running production model, so it appears
that the design of this little pocket cruiser has proven
itself over the long haul. The technical specs for
the boat are as follows:
- LOA - 22'0"
- LWL - 18'8"
- Beam - 7'10"
- Draft - 3'6"
- Sail Area - 217 square
feet
- Ballast - 1230 lbs.
- Displacement - 2600
lbs.
- Designer - Gary Mull
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While in pretty good
shape overall, the boat does have a few little
"fix-it" items that I've started working on. The
first, and most pressing in my mind is the repair of the
electrical system. The fuse / switch panel on this boat is
located on the starboard side of the cabin, right where your
foot is prone to hit it as you step down into the cabin.
All of the old toggle switches had been broken off, so the panel
needed to be replaced. I picked up a new panel at West
Marine, this one has flush mounted rocker switches instead
of the old toggle style switches, so I hope it will prove to be
much more forgiving when bumped with a foot. There is
currently no battery in the boat, so that's the next item I need
to add. The wiring itself seems to be ok, so I'll most
likely just reconnect everything to the new block once I get a
battery installed. I'm also looking at the various solar
powered trickle chargers to keep the battery topped off.
The boat had a VHF radio in it at one time, the bracket and
antenna are still there, so a new radio install should be no
problem once I've got juice to work with again. I also
think I'll spring for some sort of on board sound system,
nothing too outrageous, just something to let me spin a cd or
two when the sailing is slow or when I'm toasting a sunset out
on the lake.
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When I'm not on the
boat, I'm scouring every available resource for all the sailing
related information I can find. I know I've got a long way
to go, so I want to jump start the process as much as I
can. I found a couple of great books at 
Barnes & Noble,
and if you're a beginner like I am, I'm definitely going to
recommend that you pick up a book or two to get yourself some of
the same information that I'm gathering. The first of the
books, "The Complete Sailor" is a fun, thorough guide
that so far has provided me tons of useful information on all
aspects of handling my boat. It's illustrated with tons of
hand drawn images, the sections are short and to the point and
the range of topics is immense. This one is a great book
to start with. The other book I'm working through is
"Sailing Fundamentals". It's a bit drier of a
read, but very informative as well. If I had to recommend
just one of the two, I prefer "The Complete Sailor",
but you can't go wrong with either or both of these.
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The Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing
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Sailing Fundamentals: The Official Learn-to-Sail Manual of the American Sailing Association and the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
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Well, as expected,
every day that I have a spare minute, I'm out at the marina,
twiddling with something, or out on the water hunting a
breeze. The first week that I owned the boat, the wind was
pretty much almost non-existent. I did a lot of floating,
and very little sailing. Easter Sunday brought a little
bit of wind, and I wound up having a pretty good day of
sailing. I'm finding the boat fairly easy to handle by
myself, particularly in the light breezes that have been
prevalent.
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Mid-June
- My first scare. Returning home Friday night from
a business trip, I didn't have much of a chance to check out the
Utah weather. When I woke Saturday morning, a strong
southerly wind was blowing through the valley. All the
local flags that I watch as "wind indicators" were
standing strait out to the north, their ends whipping and
snapping fiercely. "Too much wind for me" I
thought to myself, but since I had a few things I wanted to do
on the boat, I decided I'd head out to the Marina anyway.
As I'm starting to learn, the weather in the valley is not often
the same weather that is on the lake. Many times, it seems
like the wind will be blowing steadily in the valley, without a
whisper of a breeze making it's way to the lake. This day
was no exception. While there was a little wind on the
lake, it could only be described as a light breeze.
The Great
Salt Lake Yacht Club had a race going that day, so most of the
fleet was out by the time I got there. Since the wind was
apparently not going to be a factor, I decided to take the boat
out and ride the breeze a little. About an hour out, I was
moving slowly on a port tack, what little wind there was barely
moved the surface of the water. I had my 150 Genoa all the
way unfurled and the main close hauled. I was heading in a
north westerly direction, when I noticed a little ruffle of
water moving it's way towards me. "Oh good, here
comes a little breeze" I thought to myself. Next time
I'll know better. The ruffle was the same heavy wind that
had been blowing up the valleys, now suddenly turning around the
point of the mountains to play across the lake. As the
full force of the wind hit my sails, the little Santana heeled
over hard and my mouth suddenly went dry. This was the
first real wind I had ever been in on the boat, and I was not
exactly sure what to do first. Wetting my pants seemed
like the first step my body wanted to do, but I figured that
wouldn't be all that helpful, so I concentrated instead on
trying to get things under control.
I furled the
Genoa, which took the bulk of the heel out and got me back into
a position where I felt like I was under control. Using
just the main, I sailed in what was now a steady wind for a
while, as my hands stopped shaking and my confidence slowly
started to return. Eventually, I even got the nerve up to
unfurl the Genoa again and I ended the day with several hours of
exhilarating sailing. I found out a little about how the
boat handles heavy wind, learned some things to do and some
things not to do, and overall I was proud of myself for winding
up sailing hard in what the weather decided to bring
me.
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August
- There be spiders here! I need to tell you a bit
about the local fauna at the Great Salt Lake Marina. As
you may or may not know, about the only living creature tough
enough to endure in the lake is a small critter referred to as a
Brine Shrimp. On the shores, there is a prolific little
black fly that is called the Brine Fly. (I'm not sure if
the two are related or not, or the same critter at different
stages in it's life. I'll try to find out and get back to
you on that...) Anyway, since the brine flies are so
numerous, the native spiders also explode in huge numbers.
If you leave your boat unattended for a week or two, you'll be
doing the Spider Dance before you're doing any sailing.
Here's how the Spider Dance works. You start by standing
at the head of your slip, and trying to figure where your boat
ends and the spider webs begin. I use an old broom to
begin the dance, usually starting at the bow and working my way
slowly back. As you swat a web loose from the boat, the
spider who built the web immediately shows his/her displeasure
with you by scrambling across the dock, or up the handle of your
broom. At this point, the best defense is to wildly flail
the broom around, hoping to send the spider onto the neighbors
boat, or to try to stomp the assailant before it corners you.
This activity is
not for the faint of heart, or those who suffer from severe
arachnophobia. Once the boat is more or less uncovered,
it's time to board her for the assault on those who are building
webs inside the mainsail cover, under the handle of the tiller
and around the coils of ropes. I've found that if I keep
up with the process, spending a little time at least once a
week, I can generally complete the Spider Dance with a minimum
of exertion and close encounters with big black scary looking
spiders. If for some reason I'm out of town, or can't get
to the boat for a couple of weeks, the process takes a bit
longer, and may even call for a gallon or so of insect
spray. Be careful with the insect spray though, that seems
to really piss the spiders off at first. In most cases,
they'll get a chance to chase you before they begin to succumb
to the effects of the toxin. The best defense overall is
just to sail a lot, as time spent out on the lake is that much
less time the nasty little buggers have to web your boat in.
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